FIVE QUESTIONS WITH CATHERINE VILLENEUVE, BREMONT’S HEAD OF MILITARY & SPECIAL PROJECTS

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT BREMONT?

For over a decade my role has been Head of Bremont Military and Special Projects and in addition, just over a year ago, online sales was incorporated as well.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND?

I am originally from Quebec, Canada and I graduated as a Geomatic Engineer at Laval University, Quebec City. I went on to live in Hawaii and spent my days windsurding for a couple of years before I went Calgary, Canada, to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Customer Service and then the Engineering department. I moved to London, England in early 2000 and my first job was for Nick and Giles’ previous business, Virtue Broadcasting plc, as a Sales Manager, doing live and on-demand, encoding, streaming of corporate AGM and large music concerts. I’ve worked for them since then. The rest as they say, is history… !

WHICH BREMONT DO YOU WEAR AND WHY?

I am very lucky that I now own a couple of Bremont watches. Sadly I will never be able to have one of our project watches gracing my wrist, because their ownership is sacrosanct, but today I am  wearing my 43mm ALT1-C  with a green dial. It is truly a stunning watch, a “vintage” Bremont with the original racing green hue. Green dials are currently all the rage but we created this one 12 years ago!

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY AT BREMONT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

I don’t think there is a typical day at Bremont!  I am immensely fortunate to be working with so many interesting clients and each discussion will therefore vary enormously. Obviously, a typical day pre-Covid was a little different to how it is currently. Generally, my day involves a few internal meetings (now on Slack or Zoom) to understand commercials, product promotions for e-commerce, and product design, but the majority of my time currently is spent communicating with our Military and Corporate clients. Creating a special Bremont watch for a military regiment, squadron, unit or the equivalent for a non-military project, is a very lengthy operation with a huge amount of time, effort and passion going into the design process.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT WORKING FOR BREMONT AND WHY?

Three things; our customers, the Bremont team, and the design process. Over the years and after a few hundred projects, you get to meet some incredibly fascinating people. The clients are from all corners of the globe. They are usually very modest and just a delight to work closely with. Bremont Military and SP customers are truly passionate about watches. Due to their line of work, they have high of expectations and it is seen as an heirloom linking to their military heritage, so we know these watches are very special to them.

I am also so incredibly fortunate to have such a truly special team working alongside me. They are all dedicated and passionate about their roles, and this alone allows us to deliver the quality of product expected from us as luxury British watchmaker.